MAGIC OF THE UNIVERSE / Aces Films - 1988

Welcome everbloody to Friday Night Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite we gots another Asian entry, this one's about a circus magician, Jamir, who accidentally causes his daughter and wife to disappear. He then has to venture into a dangerous alternate dimension in order to rescue them from the vile clutches of the evil witch, Mikula, and her grotesque army of animal people minions.

The music's by Rey Ramos, who has 19 composing credits that includes the titles SNAKE SISTERS, VIRGIN PEOPLE, HEE-MAN: MASTER OF NONE, FLESH AVENUE and LOST AND FOUND COMMAND: REBELS WITHOUT BECAUSE! He also has 2 soundtrack credits and an acting credit.

Judging by the atomic clock on the wall over there, well, it's time to bring in our fuzzy little multi-eyed freek and Dungeon helper, yes, that's right, it's good old... Ralphie The Tarantula! And, he's here to start the show with our Eariffic Earclip for... MAGIC OF THE UNIVERSE!

Here's the touring magic show in their highly decorated International truck, on the way to their next stop...

This is our magician hero, Jamir, played by Michael De Mesa. He casts a spell and his wife, daughter and little helper just disappear!

A good monster shows Jamir the portal to the alternate dimension where his family and lil' buddy are.

This bad monster looks a lot like one of the monster dudes in the totally twisted flick from New Zealand, BAD TASTE! We've already done that one, so, you can use our search tool to easily find it, in case you want to check it out.

This wrinkly old semi-transparent guy wanders into the scene to give his 2 cents worth about whazzup.

Jamir comes in contact with a primal tribe and wows them with his magical wizardry.

All Hell breaks out in the jungles of the alternate universe.

This is the evil witch, Mikula, on the right, deliciously played by Armida Siguion-Reyna. She rules with the help of her loyal monster minions.

Not sure whut's goin' on here, but, I like this still a lot!.. Hiiiiiieee-Yaaaah!!

Jamir's buddy gets to tangle with this deadly swamp creature!

Mikula and her horde go into the jungle and capture Jamir and his family.

In the meantime, things aren't going that well back at the fortress. This is Sunshine, I believe, as the good witch, Freza. She has shown up to help Jamir, and, can shoot laser bursts out of her eyes! She really knows how to hurt a bad monster!!

Here's two shots of Jamir's little helper, who's stage name I think is... Tom Tom!

This little goat faced tattletale tells Mikula that there's big trouble back at the ranch, with Freza and all!

Finally, Jamir gets to face off with Mikula after they relocate back to the fortress. It is soooo weird, Mikula's brain moves around and inflates/deflates inside her head!!!.. Very strange looking!

Jamir fries Mikula's wicked ass with a high voltage electrical shock right through her eyeball sockets!!

Jamir's job's done here, and, it's time to get back to his own dimension!.. All hail mighty Jamir!!

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!..

CITY OF FEAR - Jerry Goldsmith - "I Don't Want To Die Vince" (1959)

"City Of Fear" is my kind of movie, dark and dank, simple but effective! No big mysteries, just a story of desperation! Extremely deep desperation!!

Vince Edwards as Vince Ryker, and the guy he busted out with are on the lam in an ambulance! They think they have escaped and made off with a large canister full of 100% pure snow, but in reality, the canister is filled with radioactive Cobalt 60! Vince's buddy is already on the verge of croaking from exposure!!

The cops have set up check points all over the place, but Vince is always one step ahead of them! His buddy bit the big one, so Vince got himself some fresh duds, and a different ride!

Vince is a very smart cat, he even picked up a sailor hitchhiking, so he completely fools everyone with his ruse! Hey, kinda looks like Clark Kent! "It's okay officer, he's my boyfriend!"

The music for "City Of Fear" as composed by the Oscar winning Jerry Goldsmith swings pretty good, and is interesting the whole way! From 1951 to 2004, Jerry Goldsmith did it all, big and small! I've told you before that he composed the music for 7 episodes of "The Twilight Zone," and 18 episodes of "Thriller," and here's a sample of his work from the late 90's, titles like "Mulan," "Star Trek:Insurrection," "The Mummy," "The 13th Warrior," and "The Haunting!" Jerry also had a sense of humor, they say he wore an ape mask while conducting the score for "Planet Of The Apes!"

Lyle Talbot as Chief Jensen and John Archer as Lieutenant Mark Richards have got their hands full trying to track down an escaped killer carrying what amounts in 1959 terms to a time bomb!

Every cowpoke's dream, Patricia Blair has the role of Vince's girlfriend! Besides being in "Black Sleep," Patricia was Goldy in 6 episodes of "Yancy Derringer," Lou Mallory in 22 episodes of "The Rifleman," and 116 episodes of the "Daniel Boone" show as Rebecca Boone!

They have sent in every cop in the country to look for Vince armed with Geiger counters in hope of tracking down the radioactive trail he's leaving!

You might not recognize the name but Joseph Mell on the right has got a mug you can't forget from flicks like "Two On A Guillotine," and "Black Zoo," and here, he's Eddie Crown, the money man with a shoe store for a front! Sherwood Price is the punk named Pete Hallon!

If you don't play straight with people, sometimes bad things can happen to you!!

"If you wanna make the move, then you better come in, it's just the ability to reason that wears so thin, living and dying and the stories that are true, secrets to a good life is knowing when you're through, black coat, white shoes, black hat, Cadillac, the boy's a time bomb!" - Rancid

A perfect portrait of Los Angeles, circa 1959.

Hubba, hubba, how bout those gams??

Eddie and Vince don't see eye to eye for long, and after he disposes of Eddie, Vince steals his Lincoln! Vince needs to get out of town badly, the heat is on!

From there on out, it's man versus can, and you can place your bet who the winner is going to be!

The can escapes the first chance it gets, and rolls off the seat when Vince stops at a gas station, only to end up in a tuft of grass!

The nice gas station man saves the can from destruction out on the street, but when Vince notices it's gone, he turns around and frantically backtracks, and eventually finds it again!

Alone together, back in the Hotel room, Vince gets tired of the can's taunting lies, infidelity, and promises of fortune, but he still can't get it open!!

Run, Vince, Run! You can't outrun Hell when you're carrying it with you!

Exterminate the vermin!

By some miracle, Vince is able to elude his pursuers by ditching into a coffee shop!

I couldn't ever stand watching Vince Edwards as Dr. Ben Casey in even one of the 153 episodes he was in, but then I just didn't like that show! He's great when he's tough and gritty like in "City Of Fear" or "The Mad Bomber!"

Well, it's pretty obvious what this is all leading up to, but if you want to see the real final shot, You'll have to rent it yourself from Netflix!